I'm in Hamburg right now and one way or another I've been hearing various spins on this all day, on Twitter and from coworkers, what not.
This is the only thing I've read today, including countless newspaper stories, NY Times Op-Eds, and all the other stuff clogging up the intertubes that has made me feel anything.
I remember 1989. The crushing of freedom at Tiananmen, followed just months later by it's bloom in Europe.
China remains a totalitarian state. But I did not think that freedom would come to Eastern Europe, not without blood and fire, and I was wrong.
Hope is a powerful thing. And if freedom can come to East Germany in rivers of champagne instead of blood, maybe, just maybe, it can come to China, too.
Hope is an elusive creature sometimes. It's easy to lose track of it when so much of the world seems to have fallen to shit. But...it's there. Little, hiding behind something, but there.
Pater Gerd, who was the Youth Group leader of the Catholic parish in my town, gave me a candle when I left Germany. It reads "Immer wenn du meinst 'Es geht nicht mehr!'/Kommt von irgendwo/Ein kleines Lichtlein her"
What does that translate to? Also, this was a pretty special story. It's going to go in my vault of treasured memories, because something like this is manna from heaven for somebody like me.
Wow. Thank you for posting this. I remember watching myself when I could (I was more of a newshound then though I still love it now) but I was still in school so I couldn't stay glued to the TV. I remember thinking "this is big, this has to be big". Hearing your memories and reading this got me teary eyed. Thanks so much for sharing.
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This is the only thing I've read today, including countless newspaper stories, NY Times Op-Eds, and all the other stuff clogging up the intertubes that has made me feel anything.
So thank you.
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Did you get the CBYX newsletter? I thought that was pretty neat.
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I was 7 and I think it's the first news event I really remember (and a shuttle exploding)
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I remember 1989. The crushing of freedom at Tiananmen, followed just months later by it's bloom in Europe.
China remains a totalitarian state. But I did not think that freedom would come to Eastern Europe, not without blood and fire, and I was wrong.
Hope is a powerful thing. And if freedom can come to East Germany in rivers of champagne instead of blood, maybe, just maybe, it can come to China, too.
Hope.
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Pater Gerd, who was the Youth Group leader of the Catholic parish in my town, gave me a candle when I left Germany. It reads "Immer wenn du meinst 'Es geht nicht mehr!'/Kommt von irgendwo/Ein kleines Lichtlein her"
I think it's a pretty good reminder.
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